Seed Sanctuary.

Do any of you Canadian SFG'ers use Salt Spring Island Seed Company? Over the past few years I have stopped using the big seed companies who put out the fancy big catalogues with the glossy pictures and have instead started using West Coast Seeds and now Salt Spring Island Seeds. My daughters turned me on to them and both companies advertise in West Coast Gardens Magazine. I have switched to them because they encourage the growth of heirloom varieties and the preservation of our food source instead of genetically modified foods. They encourage people to practice saving seeds from year to year and sharing with friends and neighbours.

Now I have discovered that Salt Spring Island Seeds has a "Seed Sanctuary" for the preservation of old, rare varieties of seeds. For $20.00 you can become a member and then pick any five of the seeds in their seed sanctuary list to try growing in your area. As long as you keep records and give them feedback on how those plants did in your zone, you can choose another five the following year without paying another $20.00. They are looking for people in various zones to do this.

I am so excited about this and hope to try it. If any of you are interested, just go to Salt Spring Island Seed Co. website and click on Seed Sanctuary for more info.

GK

Way Cool, I think I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip!!!!!

veddy interesting...thanks!

Thanks for the heads up!

Is this only for Canada?

I took a look on their website, and they do ship internationally, but NOT to the US due to customs regulations.

There's a similar organization - Seed Savers here in the States that tries to preserve varieties by distributing/selling heirloom seeds that are appropriate to your region. I haven't yet gotten anything from them, but I'm starting to think about my garden for next year, when I hope to have ONLY heirloom varieties.

Thanks Wyldflower! I run into that a lot when looking at gardening magazines and seed catalogues from the US too. Many things I would love to try I can't have shipped across the border. Sigh! I just bought a Farmer's Almanac thinking I would look up moon phases and discovered that most of the information is for the US. I have heard there is a Canadian edition but so far haven't seen it anywhere.

I hope some of you are able to give these Seed Saver organizations a try.

GK